I thought I was dehydrated - the truth was far worse

The sky was a deep, angry grey as rain hammered down. We were somewhere mid-Atlantic, thousands of miles from land.

My knuckles were white on the oars as I rowed , clinging to the last shred of control as the storm raged around our small boat. In front of me, I heard my crewmate Jo say something but her words were swept away by the wind.

The storm abated as quickly as it had descended, and as the ocean calmed, from behind me, I heard my second crewmate, Lebby, ask if I was OK. I grinned back, adrenaline surging. ‘It was fun!’.

I’d wondered how I’d react to storms. It turns out, I thrived on them.

That moment, battered by the elements and yet more alive than ever, captured everything The Mothership was about.

We were four, working, mid-life mums – my sister, Pippa, was the fou